The primary growth engine for your agency is insurance lead generation so it should be high on your list of priorities. Working to develop a continuous stream of prospective clients is not a once-and-done thing, it’s an ongoing process that should involve a variety of strategies. While your sales staff might be the primary personnel entrusted with this responsibility, everyone in the agency should be involved in insurance lead generation to varying degrees.
Leads are cold until they begin engaging with you. When that two-way process begins, they become warm leads or prospects. Some prospects may convert to sales relatively quickly, while others may require nurturing over a longer period, a year or even several years You need a good contact management and lead tracking system, in which you can continue expanding on the prospect profile. Tailor your communications to their profile. Move the lead into the sales funnel to convert leads to customers.
It should be apparent that qualified leads or leads that you have a relationship with are stronger than cold leads. Here are major insurance lead generation sources, starting with the most qualified sources.
Your current book
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: the first place to mine for sales leads is right in your own book of business. Past and present clients fall into the category of warm leads or prospects, so should be high on your priority list.
Look for untapped opportunities, such as single policy accounts or new products such as cyber liability, umbrella, or flood insurance. Mine your personal lines clients for commercial opportunities and mine your commercial businesses for personal lines opportunities. Check to see if your larger commercial clients are open to a personal lines program for employees, or if you can set up a table in their cafeteria during benefits enrollment. Reach out to executive staff with high-value personal lines products. Check your personal lines to know who owns a business or is a key manager in a business.
Your current clients are not only good prospects, but they are also a great potential source of referrals. Start a referral program if you don’t already have one. Ask for online reviews on Google.
Hold agency wide insurance lead generation brainstorming sessions. Train, mentor, motivate, and reward your employees for sourcing leads among friends and family, and within your local community.
Your online presence
Your website should be built as an insurance lead generation machine. The goal is to move the relationship with site visitors from being passive to active, and to gather information that will allow you to build prospect profiles.
Make sure that your site is optimized to be found in the search engines for the type of clients you serve. Have a call to action prominently on every page of your site – a chatbot, a sign up for a newsletter, or an offer of something of value in exchange for email or other information. The offer could be and expert whitepaper, quotes, a webinar, or a free assessment of current coverage.
On your website, generate a fresh stream of expert content in your key products or target industries. Most sites are static and there is no reason for a prospect to come back. Produce interesting, useful, and timely content that demonstrates your expertise and solves customer problems.
Leverage that content on social media channels, matching content to the channel. Again, your goal on social media is engagement. Engage means just that – follow people, like posts, key your content to trending topics and localities. Use keywords, hashtags, and calls-to-action. Consider targeted social media ads with offers for whitepapers, webinars, and quotes.
“Real world” marketing
After being in lockdown or work–from–home mode for more than a year, you can be forgiven if you forgotten that not everything is digital. It’s time to get back into networking though industry organizations, community events, and trade shows. Get on the speaking circuit for local organizations. Set up booths at home shows staging raffles. Establish cross-referral programs with businesses vendors and others that you intersect with, such as realtors, financial advisors, and sellers of new homes, cars, motorcycles, RVs, and trucks. Build your local profile and your expert status. If you service specific industry sectors, target publications and events geared to that industry. Include calls to action in any marketing activities you engage in. With every activity, give people a reason to sign up via email or to follow you on social media. Don’t forget that your goal is to engage and move contacts from cold to warm.
Purchased leads
You can buy lead lists or even leads but be sure that you do your homework first. Conduct due diligence on the vendor to learn how they acquired the leads and be clear about what you are buying: the number of leads, how fresh they are, the accuracy of data, and the depth of the information on the contact. The more detailed, the more costly. We’ve talked about the strength and weaknesses of purchased leads before – see our prior post Are Insurance Internet Leads Worth Your Cash? Before you buy leads or a lead list, ensure that you do not run afoul of any federal or state laws on spam, which could lead to fines and email blacklisting of your domain. Before you buy or email an unqualified list, familiarize yourself with the law: CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business.
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